TUESDAY, 12TH JANUARY 1998, saw us up at the Horse and Jockey, Helsby for another evening with an American banjo player, courtesy of Bryn Williams and the House of Plank with sponsorship from the landlord of the Horse and Jockey and a press-gang bucket collection. Not bad, to see someone who, according to his Internet web site, commands from $800 to $1,200 (about £490 to £740) per performance!

Tony Ellis and his wife Louise live on a farm in Ohio, USA. His antecedents were Welsh Quakers who emigrated from Llyn Celyn - a village in a North Wales valley which was flooded to create the Llyn Celyn Reservoir. So they were especially pleased to have the opportunity to visit while they were here.

Tony kicked off the first set with a pre-Civil War tune, Stand Boys Stand learned from his Grandmother who learned it from a State Senator. He had to deal with a little competition, though, from the sizzling of the Mexican Steak served on a red-hot skillet to the table nearest him! This first tune demonstrated Tony’s very even, rhythmic double-thumbing (alternate thumb and finger) picking as did one of Tony’s own tunes the Ohio Waltz. This was faultlessly played, with a nice, sensitive guitar accompaniment from Stuart Williams. Stuart, along with occasional keyboard from Louise (she uses a small portable harmonium back home) provided backing for the evening.

Photo © Dave Crowley, Irby, Cheshire UK. Write to

The next two tunes, Down Town Fifth Street Rag and Peninsula proved Tony to be equally at home with three-finger picking. Some expressive and emotional playing on Wind Chimes and Nursery Rhymes followed, with sensitive back-up from Stuart.

The introductions to the songs and tunes were done with dry, gentle humour as Tony recounted stories from his life and experiences on the farm and problems encountered writing his own stuff:

“It’s about time fer a Chicken Song” introduced Big Bad Red, a tune inspired by the mean Rhode Island Red Rooster given to him at the age of ten by his father. He followed this with a wedding piece he had written for two friends - Hand In Hand, which was accompanied by Louise on keyboard. I wasn’t at all sure when I saw the keyboard at the start of the evening but I was pleasantly surprised on this tune as it fitted in beautifully!

We had a change of pace now with Tony taking up the fiddle for a tune called A Message to Shamus. He told an interesting tale about how he arrived at the tile. “I was out in the fields on the tractor when I felt this tune coming on and I rushed in to get it down on the banjo before I lost it. “When I’d finished I wondered whether it was a new tune at all or an old tune recalled, so I telephoned a friend, Shamus O’connor who’d been All Ireland Fiddle Champion many times, thinking that if any would know if it was an old tune, it would be him! “He wasn’t home so played it to him on his answering machine. “Well, Shamus phoned back and said ‘You got a new one there!’ Hence the title!”

Tony ended the first set with a tune he wrote called Steven which was used as an ending tune for a TV programme for which he’d brought across the tabulature, offering it to anyone who wanted a copy for free!

I chatted to Tony and Louise during the break and asked him why there were no words to the ‘wedding song’ he’d played in the first set - I felt that it was such a pretty tune and it was crying out for words!. He says that all his pieces are tunes but a couple of his friends had felt the same thing and were writing words to it.

Off with the second set and a song at last! A bluegrass song no less, Jesse James, giving those of us who wanted to a chance to sing along. But having said that, the words were not the usual ones - it was a version I hadn’t heard before. The Hangman’s Song followed in mountain minor tuning. This was inspired by George Malleden who was hangman to Judge Isaac Parker, called the Hanging Judge because he never passed any other sentence! Apparently George Malleden prided himself on his efficiency and invented a six-drop gallows to speed up the process!!

He followed this with a couple more bluegrass offerings and the observation that he liked the old 50’s style bluegrass tunes as “They really had the corn in ‘em” The next offering was an old Carter Family song, The Storms Are On The Ocean followed by The Cherry Blossom Waltz This last tune proved to me that Stelling banjos aren’t always just rowdy, rackety and raucous but can be played with great style and finesse and sound just beautiful!

A couple of fiddle tunes, McCloud’s Reel and Ash Grove played in the old time mountain style with double-stopping were followed by another of Tony’s humorous introductions to a tune called Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek was a small river close by where they lived which was used as a dump for sewage by the county which spoilt its appearance and perfumed the air around the town making it impossible to ignore! So when Tony and a few of his friends got together and formed a group gigging around the area they called themselves the Beaver Creek Boys as they weren’t very good but you couldn’t ignore them!!

... Flatt and Scruggs’ Down The Road featured some great Scruggs picking, with Stuart on vocals. Hartford’s Waltz and Let Me Fall - with the Stelling really ringing out on the latter - paved the way for the finale, Long Journey Home, with Russell Williams on mandolin joining in. Although most of the material Tony played was self-penned they all sounded very authentic and in period. Great Stuff!!

Jean Brandon, Chester Write to Jean

Updated 1st March 1999